Crystal Bowersox Sings About Turbulent Childhood

Crystal Bowersox may not have won season 9 of Amerian Idol, but there’s no doubt she will be huge! The mom of one released her first album last week and made sure to stay true to herself the whole way through – a quality that made millions of Americans fall in love with Crystal in the first place.

Crystal also released a touching music video for the title track first single, "Farmer’s Daughter." The video clearly hints at the emotional, psychological and physical abuse Crystal endured at the hands of an alcoholic mother during childhood.

"It was a dark time for all of us growing up…but I think in the long run, it’s being honest and telling our story," Crystal tells MTV News. "The song’s a healing song…and once you start to talk about any issues you’re having, these childhood issues, you can begin to heal."

Crystal struggled with her record label for the release of "Farmer’s Daughter" as her first single. They preferred Crystal’s more upbeat song entitled "Hold On," but Crystal believed "Farmer’s Daughter" was more representative of who she was.

"It wasn’t necessarily a battle, win or lose, it was more of just convincing the label that putting ‘Farmer’s Daughter’ out as the first single was the best choice, as far as representing me as an artist and a songwriter. ‘Hold On’ is a great song – it’s the safe choice – and I didn’t want to just do the cookie-cutter, safe choice. Nothing to discredit the song, I gave it my best shot…but as far as a first single goes, ‘Farmer’s Daughter’ was the right choice, and I had to slowly get the label to agree with that, and they did."